So, where is the incentive for me to NOT commit a penalty every time I get beat deep? Seriously. Any time a corner or safety sees a ball go over his head and he is more than 15 yards from the LOS all he has to do is tackle the receiver. 15 yards or an 80 yard bomb for a TD? No brainer, take the penalty every time.

Seems to me the 15 yard penalty is too arbitrary. Today, WRs can "steal" a 50 yard penalty by acting or inviting contact. With the 15 yard penalty, the DBs can be incented to interfere if they're risking getting beaten. The question becomes, how can the penalty be equally risky for both offense and defense?

Maybe you just split the difference. Defensive interference costs half the distance from the line of scrimmage to the point of the infraction. That way a defender still pays a hefty price for interfering on purpose ie., a 25 yard penalty on a 50 yard pass, a 10 yard penalty on a twenty yard pass -- and always an automatic first down. If the offensive player is trying to draw the penalty, at least it's not a 50 yard pick-up. Seems about as fair a you can get in an imperfect situation...

The college and high school argument doesn't really work for me. An NFL veteran is going to be smarter than a 20 year old college player just as an NFL coach will be smarter than most college coaches. With only 15 yards at stake, you really think that a 5' 10" DB isn't going to do everything he can to keep Calvin Johnson from catching a bomb from Stafford... even if that means tackling him to the ground or grabbing hold of his wrists? Don't be so naive. Would it happen every time? No. But it would happen enough for it to be a problem. Absolutely.

If I were commish for a day, I would put an end to division teams playing twice a year. I would like to see a larger variety of matchups. Seems silly for the Jets and Patriots to have played 8 times since the last time the Patriots and Falcons played.

I agree completely. I officiate both college and high school and the 15 yard penalty does not create any issues. ADDITIONALLY- the NFL has to dump the automatic 1st down on illegal hands to the face. It's infuriating to see a team 3rd and 14 and get an auto 1st down because a cornerback inadvertently hit a WR's face chucking him. That punishment does not fit the crime.

I don't know how the 15 yard penalty will really work for Pass Interference. I see one issue with it....coaches teaching defensive players that if the receiver is getting away from them or going to catch the ball 25+ yards away from the line, interfere...it's better to take 15 yards than 25 or more. Look at the Pittsburgh Steelers/Washington Redskins game....Ike Taylor was getting beat, pass was to the receiver he was supposed to be defending....if the receiver catches the ball - touch down. So Ike interferes, keeps the pass from happening, the ball is spotted at the point of the foul, which wasn't too far from the end zone. Just imagine if that ball had to be spotted 15 yards from the line of scrimmage....that would have been a big 'win' for Pittsburgh on that play. I think the ball ended up being spotted 30 yards from the line of scrimmage - a 15 yard difference. Which would a defense rather have?

We already have a 5 yard penalty for holding. Why not have a 15 yard penalty for pass interference and then another spot of the foul penalty when a WR is tackled? Kind of like roughing and running into. Yes, I know it's a judgement call but that's the case for a lot of penalties.

I agree with the DPI 15 yard penalty. Right now the PI penalty is skewed heavily against the defense. On an DPI penalty offense is awarded the ball at the spot of the foul under the presumption that the receiver would have caught the ball if not for the contact which can be extremely harsh if it was a deep ball and/or in the endzone. However, the penalty for OPI is only 10 yards; it does not include a presumption that the defender would have caught the ball if not for the contact which would result in an INT if the same logic was used.

I disagree with limiting PIs to 15 yards. While I agree that its a judgement call and doesn't always play out fairly, a DB would have every incentive to maul a WR 50 yards down field if the WR even has half a step on him. It would turn into a joke.

@BillieBob Spot of the foul is fair, after all that is where the receiver would have caught it. The only problem, like you point out, is what about a WR that fakes it? Easy, just make penalties reviewable like any other play. If the ref calls a 50 yard PI penalty, let the coach challenge it, and if there was no penalty then the flag is picked up and the WR doesn't get anything for his theatrics.

@sisisisisisi You bring up a very good point and its tricky to sort out what the best solution is. But at the end of the day, it comes down to a business decision. The deep ball is a huge draw for many fans. If you make it less successful, my bet is that it hurts business in the long run.